1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of ecommerce and pertains particularly to methods and apparatus for sorting and displaying virtual items for display through a website.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In ecommerce, items that are generally for sale by an enterprise may be represented to consumers through a website display interface. Users or visitors may then buy one or more items displayed by them using a display interface to order displays of the items for viewing and selection.
In various business models optimizing item thumbnail displays is practiced to help the consumer select an item and hopefully make a purchase. Sorts of this type may include sorting according to item popularity or item price. A problem with many current sorting methods is that the criteria used for the sort has no real and direct relation to incoming revenue caused by the sale of those items in aggregate. Therefore, the optimizations made to display items do not work to increase revenue directly and consistently.
Therefore, what is clearly needed is a method for sorting virtual items in a virtual catalog and displaying those items according to highest revenue contribution value or performance of those items over time. A sort optimization such as this would have a direct positive effect on revenue taken in from the sale of those items.